You Found Me
by thediamonddog29
Summary: The group lay in their train cart cell in the middle of the night when a familiar face rescues them. A bittersweet and long awaited reunion between two beautiful characters ensues.
1. Chapter 1: A Bittersweet Reunion

**Title: **You Found Me  
**Author:** Myself.  
**Fandom: **The Walking Dead  
**Rating: **K. It's pretty much fluff at the moment but will probably get to M soon!  
**Pairing:** Daryl Dixon/Beth Greene (Bethyl)  
**Disclaimer:** Much to my dismay, I do not own The Walking Dead, Beth Greene or Daryl Dixon, though I wish I did. This is set after the events of **Us- Season 4****.**

**Just a little one-shot, if enough people enjoy I might actually carry it on, perhaps tell the story leading up to this and how they plan to go on?**

It was pitch black now in the train cart. Daryl couldn't even see his hand in front of his face, and he wasn't sure which of his friends were still awake. He heard a muffled cough escape from Maggie beside him; she obviously couldn't sleep either. Glenn was laid across her lap sound asleep, and every so often Daryl could feel his head brush his leg as he turned in his sleep. Everyone else must have been asleep, nobody was even moving. Abraham had fought his exhaustion for a while, claiming his friend Eugene could not be left in the hands of anyone but him. Daryl was slightly insulted but hell, he had worse things on his mind. It was crowded and stuffy and no matter what he did, sleep still evaded him.

He was thinking about one person in particular. The girl he lost. The girl he should have fought harder for and now he feels guilty. "Why have I been coasting along with Joe? I should've been looking for her". His conscience was driving him insane, just like it had every single night since Beth was taken from him.  
"You're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone", her words on loop in his mind like a broken record.  
"You were so right, Beth," he sighed. His words startled him as he hadn't meant to speak aloud, and as he realised his mistake his face flushed red instantaneously at the thought of anyone hearing.  
"Daryl? Did you say something?" Maggie breathed.  
"I, erm..." he stammered, feeling his face burning.

The sound of a padlock crashing to the floor interrupted him, startling the pair and stirring the others. The train cart door slid open with a screech and the light of a torch was shined inside, blinding Daryl as his eyes readjusted. Lowering his arm from his face he saw the head of a small figure peer inside, and he finally made out the person's face. He could recognise that face anywhere. The face he sees in his dreams, both day and night.

"Beth?!" He clambered to her, half scrambling across Rick and Carl's legs and half pushing himself up off the floor. Closing the distance between them, Daryl enveloped a beaming Beth in his strong arms. He pulled her as tight into him as he could, grasping at her back in an attempt to pull her closer but their chests were already flat against each other, her head nestled into his neck and his arms wrapped around her almost twice.  
"Ya found me, Beth," he whispered into her ear. He noticed how she seemed to melt in his arms as he breathed against her neck, and later he would consider how strange that was. After what seemed like an eternity they broke apart, and Daryl coughed rather falsely, shrugged his shoulders and averted his gaze to the floor. Beth giggled at his awkward attempt to regain stature after such a loving moment. She thought it was kind of adorable.

Daryl finally noticed the smears of blood on her face and the splatters all over her body, his stomach dropped.  
"Are ya okay?" he demanded, checking her quickly for any injuries.  
"Kinda..." and she drifted her eyes to the left, imploring him to follow them. He could see a body laid along the yard they had run into hours previously. He looked back at her to see a guilty look spreading across her face.  
"You did all that by ya'self?" She nodded, tears forming.  
"There were some more, too," she squeezed her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek.  
"You did what ya had to do, don't cry," he said, wiping under her eye with his thumb. "You were right, you don't need me anymore. You lil' ass kicker!" He smirked. Beth looked forlorn.  
"No. I was so wrong. I need you so bad, Daryl Dixon. I always will."  
"I..." He stuttered. Her face brightened as she smiled incandescently at his speechlessness.

Someone coughed sarcastically behind them, and they looked up to see Maggie, who had been standing there the whole time, grinning.  
"Think I deserve a hug from my little sis', Daryl, if you'll share." Daryl felt his face flare up again. Maggie jumped down from the cart and threw her arms around Beth, crying tears of joy. Beth lifted her head from her sister's shoulder and saw all her family, plus a few extra people, stood at the cart entrance, some of them beaming at her and some smiling a knowing smile at Daryl, who was now tomato red.  
"I got so many questions for you," Daryl grunted as Maggie released Beth from her hold.  
"An' I got so much to tell."

**A/N: Please review and tell me if you want this to continue!**


	2. Chapter 2: Terminus

**A/N: Finally! Sorry this took so long! So I was absolutely overwhelmed with the response and quite a great deal of comments asking me to carry this on and I really hope you haven't run out of patience with me whilst I took forever to do it. I promise the next chapter will be quicker! Thank you to everyone who followed/favourited/commented, your words make my day! I welcome praise and constructive criticism of course, so be as harsh as you need to! Anyhoo, enjoy this chapter. It's a lot darker than the first one, but we get some more Bethyl cuteness at the end so hold on ;)**

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Beth led the way through a seemingly empty Terminus, every so often passing a body splayed out on the floor with a stab wound to the head. Daryl noticed how Beth was doing everything in her power to avoid them, looking the other way or diverting her path so that she didn't step near the bodies. He wondered if she was afraid, but surely Beth had seen enough in the last two years to not be scared of a dead human body. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard gasps emitted from his friends. His gaze trailed slowly across the dark yard to seek out the source of their shock, but the smell hit him first. A putrid stench of rotting flesh filled the air; it smelled different to Walker flesh, they were used to that, but this was something else. It smelled raw, sweeter, almost. Realisation soon hit him that this was because they were smelling rotting human flesh...

Across the yard there were at least a dozen small cages full of various body parts hung on meat hooks, the like of which you'd find in an abattoir. Daryl spied a picked-at ribcage and a leg in one and felt vomit rumble in his abdomen at the sight. Sasha started coughing behind him, fighting to keep her stomach content down, whilst Abraham tactlessly whispered "holy shit" over and over. Beth continued her careful zigzagging between bodies without sign of emotion on her pale face, and eventually led them inside Terminus, through a large room lit by candles, names scribbled on the floor and the words "Never Again. Never Trust. We First, Always" on the walls. The tranquillity of the memorial was in stark contrast to the human abattoir outside, and the sheer impudence sickened Daryl. Beth stopped in a large room, vaguely reminiscent of a hospital ward with a dozen beds separated by curtains. In one corner was a sort of communal area with cushions and blankets abound.  
"We can stay here for the rest of the night, or however long you want to. They are all dead, I made sure, so there's no reason to worry there," Beth announced, an unfamiliar air of authority in her voice. Her face was vacant, her eyes barely leaving the ground as she spoke; this was an entirely different Beth to the one who had gleefully embraced Daryl just minutes previously, the one they all remembered...

* * *

"What was Terminus?" Carl's solemn voice broke the heavy silence. He was looking at Beth with a determined expression as they all sat amongst the pillows and blankets found in the communal area. Beth looked up slowly, having been staring at the floor for the past hour. Her eyes were red and puffy and she hadn't cracked a smile since she released them from the train cart.

"What...?" She squeaked, pretending she hadn't heard him.

"What _was _it? What were they going to do with us, what were they doing in this place?" Carl asked the question everybody had on their mind but were too scared to ask Beth for fear she'd bite off their heads. Apart from Daryl, who was less concerned with the whys and hows and was instead spending his time fantasising every possible situation in which he builds the confidence to ask Beth how she is. But that meant feelings and comforting her and even though he longed to do it, he assumed he wouldn't be much help anyway. Beth stared at them each in turn with a look that could turn flesh to stone, grinding her teeth slowly.

"Cannibals," she breathed after an eternity of silence. All eyes on her now widened, Eugene's mouth fell open and Sasha clasped a hand to hers. "There were good people though. When I came here only a couple of days ago this really was a place of refuge, a sanctuary. They found me and took me in, gave me a bed and food. But the guys who took me from Daryl followed me here, I heard them shouting and laughing at the gates about 'wanting their dinner back'. Next thing I hear is those same guys opened fire at them all. They took this place over and kept all the bodies to eat. _They ate them_. I'd been in the nursery lookin' after the kids and they stormed in with their guns an' I was screaming and screaming, an' they just laughed as they shot them all. They told me they'd eat the kids first and save me until last so I had to watch- jus' because I ran away from them," Tears cascaded down her face as she spoke, but the whole time she sat staring into space, her face completely empty. Maggie was crying too as she pulled her little sister into her, rocking them both back and forth whilst whispering "it's over" again and again. Daryl wished he could hold her and tell her it was okay, but he just didn't know how.

* * *

All but Beth and Daryl were asleep now. Beth had abandoned the group and was now sat on one of the beds behind the curtains, but Daryl could hear faint, crying whimpers in the darkness which told him sleep escaped her too. After battling with himself to make a move he finally did, and slowly he crept up to the curtain and pushed it back. He could just make out the outline of the girl but it was too dark to see her face.

"Beth..." was all he could muster as he stared at where he guessed her eyes were. She was silent as she turned away from him to lay, head in hands, on the bed. Daryl took a seat next to her, sitting awkwardly as he watched Beth's shoulders heave from her unrelenting sobs. He internally cursed himself for being so socially inept, so inadequate. Infinite thoughts raced around his mind; he contemplated his inferiority to Beth. How beautiful, sweet, kind-hearted she is while he, _well he's just a useless redneck,_ he surmised. Her sobs became heavier and she soon found herself panting for breath. The sight of Beth, so distraught she was doubled over on the bed in pain, made Daryl's heart ache and his stomach churn. _Just say something,_ he hissed in his head.

The next thing Daryl knew he was lifting his legs onto the bed and sliding up behind Beth. He felt a wave of panic course through him but he had reached a point of no return. Failing to find appropriate words, Daryl instead enclosed Beth's delicate body in his strong arms from behind, slipping one underneath her and joining his hands in front of her chest. They both laid tense for what seemed like forever, though Daryl was relieved to find Beth didn't throw him off the bed as soon as he made this move. His heart thumped in his ears and he felt a desperate need for confirmation that this was not a dream. _Are we actually spooning? _Beth started wriggling now in his grasp, and Daryl anticipated a kick in the balls. But she simply turned around to face him, her cheeks stained with salty tears, her puffy eyes searching for his in the dark. They laid like that for a while, faces just inches from each other's, and as they relaxed, Daryl felt her melt into him the same way she did when they had reunited hours earlier.

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**A/N: Sit tight for chapter 3 and in the meantime, review!**


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